New Report: How Consumers Give Feedback

The report analyzes survey responses from 6,000 US consumers who were asked what they did following recent experiences that were either very good or very bad.

Here’s the executive summary:

Companies often discuss “word of mouth,” but how often and in what ways do consumers discuss their experiences? We surveyed 6,000 US consumers to find out. It turns out that the most common communication about good and bad experiences occurs between friends via email, phone, or in person. While few consumers share their experiences directly with the companies that pleased or displeased them, far fewer shared those experiences via social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and 3rd party ratings sites. Our analysis also uncovered differences by age, income, ethnicity, and educational levels. We analyzed the customer bases of more than 140 companies and discovered that Days Inn, E*Trade, and Apple were the most susceptible to negative feedback via Facebook. Days Inn, Courtyard By Marriott, and Hyatt are the most susceptible via Twitter.

Download report for $195

Here’s one of the figures that shows the data at an aggregate level across the US:

Download report for $195

The report analyzes the differences by age, income, ethnicity, and educational levels of consumers. Here are some other tidbits of information from the report:

Hispanic consumers used Facebook more than Caucasians and African Americans to talk about their experiences.

African American consumers were the least likely to tell companies about a bad experience.

The higher the educational level, the more likely consumers were to give feedback directly to companies.

Higher income consumers were more likely to share their good and bad experiences via Twitter

The bottom line: Are you soliciting, listening to, and acting upon the right feedback?

Like this:

I am a customer experience transformist, helping large organizations improve business results by changing how they deal with customers. As part of this focus, I examine strategy, culture, interaction design, customer service, branding and leadership practices. I am also a fanatical student of business, so this blog provides an outlet for sharing insights from my ongoing educational journey.
Simply put, I am passionate about spotting emerging best practices and helping companies master them. And, as many people know, I love to speak about these topics in almost any forum.
My “title” is Managing Partner of the Temkin Group, a customer experience research and consulting firm that helps organizations become more customer-centric. Our goal is simple: accelerate the path to delighting customers.
I am also the co-founder and Emeritus Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to the success of CX professionals.

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2 thoughts on “New Report: How Consumers Give Feedback”

Very interesting. Since the top 2 types of feedback can’t be captured very easily, it certainly shows why so much effort goes into social media monitoring as those represent the 4th, 5th and 6th most popular forms. I would be interested in the growth of real-time post interaction surveys (e.g. automated end-of-call contact centre surveys) which I’ve seen giving companies very clear and timely feedback. Bruce’s research also seems to refute the story that “if you have a good experience you’ll tell 1 person and if you have a bad one you’ll tell 10″…
Chris Severn (customerexperience.com.au)

These results are consistent with some well known Marketing statistics that have shown that only about 5% of consumers will tell the company if they are dissatisfied (they simple defect to a competitor). BUT, if asked about their experience, as many as 90% will say something if its bothering them. Products like webreep.com work like this by asking customers about their experience straight up.